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Mar. 18th, 2004 07:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpanI was disappointed, this morning, when they announced that my commuter train was boarding. I was having so much fun watching the pigeons! One waits for the trains indoors, on one of the very few benches, or more often, standing near the fast food kiosks. Double automatic sliding doors lead to the platforms. When a train arrives, the flood of passengers means that the door stay open for several minutes.
Enterprising pigeons fly in over the crowds to hunt for crumbs in the station. I crouched to offer crumbs of my breakfast sandwich, and the birds recognized the posture. Soon, one young female pigeon was taking pieces from my fingertips. I kept my actions discreet not wishing to draw the ire of those whose job it is to keep the floor clean.
After I stopped, another passenger-in-waiting, a woman also with a standing breakfast, began dropping crumbs. Her more brazen feeding attracted a plump, if drab male bird. He chased off competitors and deftly danced beneath the feet of the crowds of commuters. He even took the opportunity to engage in some courting behavior: strutting, puffing, cooing. A group of five pigeons in total milled about.
A young lady who I'll diagnose with aviphobia was seated on the nearest bench, reading. When a pigeon got near she shot out her foot, and a disgusted look. The birds retreated just out of kicking range, only momentarily distracted from their feeding and courting activities.
Ah, Nature!
Enterprising pigeons fly in over the crowds to hunt for crumbs in the station. I crouched to offer crumbs of my breakfast sandwich, and the birds recognized the posture. Soon, one young female pigeon was taking pieces from my fingertips. I kept my actions discreet not wishing to draw the ire of those whose job it is to keep the floor clean.
After I stopped, another passenger-in-waiting, a woman also with a standing breakfast, began dropping crumbs. Her more brazen feeding attracted a plump, if drab male bird. He chased off competitors and deftly danced beneath the feet of the crowds of commuters. He even took the opportunity to engage in some courting behavior: strutting, puffing, cooing. A group of five pigeons in total milled about.
A young lady who I'll diagnose with aviphobia was seated on the nearest bench, reading. When a pigeon got near she shot out her foot, and a disgusted look. The birds retreated just out of kicking range, only momentarily distracted from their feeding and courting activities.
Ah, Nature!
Re: aviphobia
Date: 2004-03-29 08:30 am (UTC)It's the appearance of the animal that does it.
With birds, I think it's the fluttering, the suddenness of their appearance, the fact that they fly at or just over your head. Pigeons, since they are less afraid of people, are more likely to fly close to you. Their flapping makes a loud sound that startles people. They are percieved as (and sometimes are) dirty. They do shit on people sometimes, too.
At work I deal with people being afraid of spiders, insects and snakes -- these are very common phobias. None of these animals is dangerous here--we have two species of poisonous spider (I've never seen one) and no poisonous snakes--if you are allergic to bees they are dangerous, though. One friend of mine is terrified of lizards in particular (and we don't even have lizards in New England), but she can trace it to being teased with dead lizards as a child.
The strangest one to me so far is cats. I work in a store one day a week, and there's a cat. On a couple occasions customers have entered the store, seen the cat, exclaimed (One said, oh god, you have one too!) and left. Some people are allergic, but they aren't terrified; these people were terrified. One customer made me hide an artificial owl because her friend is afraid of owls. (no Harry Potter for her!)
I have friends who are afraid of dogs, but that's almost rational: dogs can hurt you.